The group's latest work is Amoreiras (2010), an installation about autonomy, artificial learning, nature and the environment. The main actors are five young mulberry trees at Paulista Avenue, São Paulo’s cultural and economic hub.

Each one of the trees has an implanted poetical prosthesis, a device with the purpouse of supplying, correcting, and enhancing a natural but compromised function, thus guaranteeing the tree’s survival. This prosthesis consists of a band of metal, rubber and acrylic prosthesis connected to a small motor and to an Arduino board to make the young trunk vibrate in dialog with the factors related to the pollution.

A dance of trees, prosthesis and algorithms, making apparent and poetic the swaying of the branches, sometimes (in)voluntary-mechanical , sometimes caused by the wind itself running against the leaves.

Insects use the light of the moon and stars as a marker of location, keeping in constant angle to get to and from their breeding places. With artificial light of our electric lights, insects start to become confused, trying to get close to light sources, flying in circles, forming clouds, attracted by light in endless loops. The light that attracts them is infrared, a wavelength the human eye is not able to see, yet it is a potent sexual attractor of moths. Thus, electromagnetic frequencies are covertly perceived through the ages under the moonlight or electric light, perpetuating the survival of species.

Desluz is about the discovery of the invisible, our provisional places, our flows and grids, layers that subtly overlap one another, lure us not letting us see them, betray our hidden, yet so apparent, senses, and bring to light our desires in endless pursuit of following the stars.

Desluz is a non-light, as an intense desire that burns but does not light; it is felt but not seen. The light will only be visible through mobile cameras that mode around the LED transparent cube, in a stripping operation than the eye cannot see.

We have a virtual blue cube on the web with a stone on its base. Upon accessing it, the interactor writes a word and chooses a place to put it. The words can overlap, or combine with others spread and scattered around the cube. In the gallery, there is a virtual stone, inside a cube with blue LEDs (8X8X8), which responds to the interventions, varying with the intensity and frequency of light, according to the choices and nominations.

Pedralumen (light-stone) is a project of contemplation, and the public in direct contact with the piece, does not have a way to interact locally with the project. At the location, only the LED cube is found (and the computer connected to the internet and to the piece, but without the keyboard, mouse or monitor for public access). It is a project of reflection on the interaction and sharing with one another, you can see the intervention of another, locally distant for that piece, but not that of your own action at that moment.

This project was presented in September /October 2008 at the exhibit “Chain Reaction” at the Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia, as part of the 3rd Upgrade! International Meeting and also at the Exhibition EM MEIOS, at the Museu Nacional da República, Brasília, as part of the #7.ART - Encontro Internacional de Arte e Tecnologia: to comprehend the current moment and think of the future context of art.

Incógnito (2007) a videopoem that consists in a virtual journey inside the root of the word "cognito". The subjective camera travels along the letters, which are arranged in three-dimensional space, without ever revealing them completely. Through this visual walk, planes and superpositions of layers appear to the viewer.

In a similar manner, the sound is a journey inside the interior spaces of the spoken word, through the "corners" and superpositions of sounds, without allowing the complete word to be recognized.

One of the frames in the video (which runs at 24 frames/second) contains the word "cógnito" in the bottom, which can´t be read in normal speed (it is necessary to freeze the frame), but is subliminally perceivedd by the brain. That is the only moment in which the word "cognito" is formally presented in writing, but not visually legible.

This work is about the different possible ways to interpret the world and perception itself.

The game Cozinheiro das Almas (Cook of Souls) is based on the book " O Perfeito Cozinheiro das Almas deste Mundo" (The Perfect Cook of the Souls of this World), diary of the garçonnière (bachelor pad) kept by Oswald de Andrade in 1918/19. The text deals with the relationship between Oswald and Deyse, who is a 17 year-old high school student at the time and other visitors to the bachelor pad. Deyse dies from tuberculosis at the age of 18 and marries in extremis Oswald on her death bed.

The video game is in the first person - in which the the player, gets lost in a virtual representation of Sao Paulo in 1918 and interactively visits a number of different environments in which little by little he/she finds out what is going on.

Everything takes place in the space of a single day and the character is flung from one place to another regardless of his/her wishes. In this way, it is a script of a doubly labyrinthine virtual atmosphere: there are spatial labyrinths as well as temporal ones.

The game is exploratory, but with a "mission" for the player. This is not stated ostensively and the player will discover it during the play.

Acaso30 (2005) is an interactive installation in memory of those killed in the massacre that took place in the Queimados neighborhood of the coastal area of the State of Rio de Janeiro sometime between a Thursday night and dawn that Friday, in March 2005 where 30 people were eliminated.

The installation is set up in a half-open space, as if it were a town square, where there could be a lot of people moving around, but that is not well-lit. In the center of the space there is a large heavy totally handmade blue rug, like those made by prisoners' wives. The series of images as well as the spots onto which they are projected occur in a random way. Once a person steps onto the rug two things happen: an image of a nude body is projected onto the ground and a strong wind is created by a fan from a wall facing the spectator. The only noise is that of the wind from the fan which creates tension and instability. As for the images, from the moment that they are projected onto a given spot tension zones are generated tension with the result that the actions of the bodies react when the spectators get closer and when they move away. When the spectators reach the bodies the situation becomes irreversible with the death of the characters and the disappearance of the images. An interval without any projections or actions follows.

This work was presented in the Mostra Cinético Digital show, at Itaú Cultural, as well as nominated at Canariamediafest06 - 12º Festival Internacional de Artes e Culturas Digitales de Gran Canária in Spain, 2006.

Desertesejo (http://www.itaucultural.org.br/desertesejo)
is an artistic project by Gilbertto Prado Developed at Program
New Media Directions - Itaú Cultural, São Paulo,
Brazil in 2000. The project is a networked virtual web-based
environment, that allows 50 participants simultaneously on-line.

Desertesejo is a poetical exploration of geographical extension,
the temporary ruptures, the loneliness, the constant re-invention
and the proliferation of points of meeting and sharing.

On entering the virtual environment, the traveler comes across
a cave which has rocks falling gently from the ceiling. Any
of these rocks can be clicked on. After having clicked on
a rock, the traveler is then transported to a new room, in
which he or she has to carry the rock selected. The traveler
can then place the rock on one of the various heaps (apaicheta)
that are found in different locations. The rock will show
that this traveler has been through here and will act as a
sign of his/her presence to other travelers.

There are three different ways to enter this room. By clicking
on a rock inside the cave, the traveler will be transported
as a tiger, a snake or an eagle. In other words: the traveler
will be able to walk, slither or fly across the room, as if
in a shamanistic dream, but the traveler won't know beforehand
what form he/she will take on in this new location.

The rooms are made up of landscapes, and fractions of memories
and dreams, with there being three distinct routes that cross
each other and alternate with each other, forming a chain,
and creating various oniric paths:

1. GOLD. This is the zone of silence. In this first room
the navigation is lonely.

2. VIRIDIS. This is the space of heaven and colors. Inside
it, the traveler will see signs that indicate the presence
of other travelers, but won't have any direct contact with
them.

3. FEATHERS. This is the axis of dreams and mirages. Within
this room the traveler interacts directly with others, via
3D chat. This is the zone of contact and partition between
the avatars of different users.

9/6 FRAGMENTOS DE MR. JAMES

The device consists of 6 interactive terminals in a set of 9 monitors. It is based on "A Reprodução Interdita (Retrato de Edward James)", a work by René Magritte (1937). Each one of the elements that form the work were isolated and reconstructed so that they "shatter" when the viewer touches them.

The isolated elements can also be composed individualy in the environment, allowing other compositions, showing through the hidden parts. The interactions combine themselves in a chain of possible paths of fragmentation and revelation, shared by the participants until they are faced with the image of the empty room, in front of a mirror with no reflections. Presented in "Imaterials" exhibition - Instituto Itaú Cultural (Aug-Oct 1999).

The installation "Depois do Turismo vem o Colunismo"
(After the Turismo comes the Colunismo*) consisted of a “portal”
with two Webcams connected to Internet which were started
by sensors disposed in the physical space of the installation
through the visitors’ passage. That local image grabbed
in real time was mixed with the ones of an image data base
and made available throughout the net.

The images available on the data base arise from scenes of
anthropophagi, pictures of XVI and XVII centuries, witch portray
the foreign view of the first visitors, tourists of the Terra
Brasilis, mixed with artistic references, contemporary and
also from other periods. The Web users could look at the space
through webcam.

The work was made with humor about the presence, the foreign
look, the contamination and the cultural cannibalism.

This Web installation took part, between September 3 and October
31, 1998, in the exhibition “City Canibal” at
the Paço das Artes in São Paulo and in the sites
selection in the Web Art of the 24th Biennial, in São
Paulo, 1998.

The device consists of 4 interactive terminals in a set of
9 monitors placed over the head of the participants, in which
the navigation is done through the touch screen. As the participant,
with his fingertips, touches the screen, a sequence of actions
will be occurring at the same time that sounds, images and
texts will be chaining together in different successions and
ways. On both, ceiling and floor of the structure's device,
there are reflective acrylic plates which reflect the participants
found imersed in this environment, generating a mirrored relation
and juxtaposing their images with the "electronic blue"
of the screens, which is the base color proposed for the interactive
animation.

The images create a great blue mosaic, chained together they
are arranged in possible oniric routes, which will be shared
with other participants. The images are fragments of (un)recognizable
elements juxtaposed between parts of the ski, depth marines,...

The intention is to have the participant interacting in an
intimate and shared way. He does it through a direct manipulation:
at the same time that the environment where he is integrated
is being modified, eventually he will be sharing it with others.

Finally, the advice requires direct actions in order to invoke
and answer the events, taking on the participant as a voyeur
and forcing his proximity to the screen in an unusual watching
position. The participants will be moving around in the device,
with their own touches they will be interrupting and modifying
the sequences of sounds and images. Effectively, the visitor
enters and modifies the inner space. The animation will become
fragmented by the participant, who is who adds "unpredictable"
rhythm to the device, incorporating the presence of the participants
in what concerns rhythm and space.
Exhibited at Arte & Tecnologia, Espaço Cultural
Itaú, São Paulo, September/October 1997.

M.A. (desejo) is an interactive installation which compounds
a cylindrical fiber glass element of 2,70m diameter by 1,70m
height, rounded by three masks and three stairs that take
to the upper top where through three other masks the interior
of this pink element can be partially seen: one video camera
was put behind the spectator who then is taking a voyeur's
position, and through the two holes of the other masks, two
multimedia computers were disposed there to be navigated.

Inside we had a CD-ROM which compounds 9 written and sonorized
poems, some passages are videos and an amount of scanarized
images and/or produced for this purpose. The starting image
was an Polaroid of, a sailor looking at strip-girls' posters,
found in a street of Paris. To this first image I added, searched,
excavated other memories of trips and my childhood, which
I spent in a portuary Brazilian city: an oblique look over
our relations, voyeurism and desires. Exhibit at Art &
Technology - Museu de Arte Contemporânea - MAC/USP -
São Paulo, Brazil - December 1995.

Since 1995,this project has researched more specifically
the production of artistic events that use the net in a direct
relation with the telematic art.

The wAwRwT project intends both to develop artistic work for
the Internet as well as to reflect upon the technological
poetics, focusing on the artistic-telematic dimension. Besides,
this project intends to investigate whether and how these
new technologies are influencing and being influenced by the
construction of those new spaces of creation and intervention.

Using the principle of shared screen via ISDN, you are invited
to take place beside your partner and construct with him/her
a hybrid image in real time, without ever touching or (even)
seeing him/her. This ambiguity is at the heart of the project.
An ephemeral relationship is created in which growth and composition
depend on the other and on the dynamics of the exchange.Breath-poetry,
a constant alternation of poles of representation, transformation
of shadow into pixel-light.

Procedure:
1- A space (circle) divided in two appears on the screen.
2- The two participants work alternately, one on the left
side, the other on the right.
3- Each participant's work consists of making whatever he
wants on his half of the screen (drawing, photo,..., any kind
of digital image, taking into account the other's participation,
thus establishing an dialogue in images.
4- A participant has access to only one half of the sphere.
He can possibly take elements from the other side (for example
by copying and pasting) but he can't intervene graphically
in the composition of the other half.
5- After the intervention, the participant turns over the
control of the screen to his partner.
6- As soon as the image is finished, the participants click
on a "button" at which time:

a: The center line disappears.
b: The image is given the name of a crater on the dark side
of the moon, using chance procedure.
c: The image is saved (memorized).
d: The image disappears.
e: The blank screen is (again) ready for a new connection.
7- All the images made (this way) reveal a dark side of the
moon, available in the form of an image bank, accessible by
clicking on a "point" of the moon map created.
This project was developed during the exhibition "Machines
à Communiquer" in the "Atelier des Réseaux"
at Cité de la Science et de l'Industrie La Villette
- Paris, with the collaboration of "Café Electronique"
also at La Villette. The first images built together were
made the 4th of July 1992 between Gilbertto Prado at "Café
Electronique" (Paris) and Hermann Keldenich at Electronic
Cafe (Kassel - Germany), during the IX Documenta. Other exchanges
followed on the 5, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25 July 1992. Other exchanges
were made, for instance on July the 29th and 30th of 1992
between the "Cafe Electronique" Paris and Electronic
Cafe International at Chicago during the Siggraph.

From an initial image, a chain reaction transformation started,
where the paths, contacts and images were memorized under
a certain topography. Each interventor modified the received
image and then marked the ramification done on the route over
the map and registered the dates of the contact to sent it
to two others participants on the net. The route of the map
was built from the bifurcations of the image and its transformations.
In other words, each participant received the successive transformation
stages that the image had gone through. The intention was
to send this series of transitory stages instead of sending
the final product of the transformation work. The main idea
was to connect and reconnect these series of stages and transformations
with an interactive animation.

From an initial image, a chain reaction transformation started,
where the paths, contacts and images were memorized under
a certain topography. Each interventor modified the received
image and then marked the ramification done on the route over
the map and registered the dates of the contact to sent it
to two others participants on the net. The route of the map
was built from the bifurcations of the image and its transformations.
In other words, each participant received the successive transformation
stages that the image had gone through. The intention was
to send this series of transitory stages instead of sending
the final product of the transformation work. The main idea
was to connect and reconnect these series of stages and transformations
with an interactive animation.

The project Connect is a fax-action that will enable people
at different locations around the globe to make a unique artwork
in real time. The participants must have two fax machines
in each site. When the messages start to arrive, they are
invited to feed that thermal paper roll (without cutting it)
into the other machine, transforming the images in the process
and then sending it to another site. In this way a loop is
formed and the participants will build together one integrated
work. An ephemeral and interactive curve will be drawn through
the artistic network of communication.

PAPERS

Lugares provisórios

Abstract: Experiments with art and networks have multiplied in recent decades with artists making use of different forms of practices, production and distribution. Our aim is to carry out a eries of investigations into creation, process and artistic experimentation, focusing on art in a network, with the use of mobile devices in motion, and evaluating notions on place and mobility. In order to do so, we also introduce notions of belonging, territorialization, deterritorialization, approximations and distinctions between locative and site-specific arts. Finally, we speak of the telematic nomad, the one who moves through mixed routes, between physical and virtual spaces, without necessarily having nodes connected to online networks.
Keywords: art, place, mobility, telematic nomad.

Abstract: This article was initially prepared for a lecture ministered to the students of PAE - Program of Support to Teaching, of ECA-USP, in 2002, when the process of dismemberment of the Arts Program in three autonomous programs has begun; such process was completed in July 2006. The article was resumed now, in 2009, as a brief and partial report of the period. Keywords: post-graduation; fine arts; visual arts; ECA; USP

Abstract: The paper is concerned with the concepts of gameplay and playability based on different theoretical views and authors, trying to point out the differences and the similarities and to propose an understanding about the concept of gameplay.
Keywords:: gameplay, playability, games

Abstract: Experiments with art and on-line networks have been increasing over the past three decades with the use of several forms of execution, production and distribution by the artists. We intend to raise some questions about online creation, process, experimentation and sharing in the diversity of contemporary production
Keywords: network art, digital art, contemporary art, locative media

Abstract: In 1918 and 1919 Oswald de Andrade and friends kept a journal of their activities in their bachelor pad. The book became to be known as “O perfeito cozinheiro das almas deste mundo”. From this journal, the Workgroup on Digital Poetics (Grupo de Pesquisa em Poéticas Digitais da ECA-USP) is developing a videogame in which the player travels back in time to São Paulo and visits places described or alluded to in the journal. In each place a plot develops and the player can arrive to any place at any poit of the plot. So the gameplay is twice labyrinthic: there are spacial labyrinths (the places) and temporal labyrinths (the different points within each plot).
Keywords: Game. Media art. New media.

Abstract: This essay is a reflection regarding the concepts of partition and simulation in Virtual Reality, parting from the work Desertesejo (2000/2002), a multiuser virtual environment accessible on the internet created by the Brazilian artist Gilbertto Prado.
Keywords: multiuser environment, net art, telematic art, web art.

Abstract: Before discussing the issue of art on the net, I would like to make a brief reference to four distinctive projects in multi-user virtual environments 1 that were recently done in Brazil. Two of them took effect at Itaú Cultural, in São Paulo. The first one, known as Imateriais99, used videogame technology to explore some key issues regarding contemporary thinking about the relationship between the real and the virtual. The other project, known as Desertesejo, accomplished in 2000 by Gilbertto Prado, works with VRML for artistic purposes. The other two projects were developed in Brasília by Tania Fraga and Suzete Venturelli, and are presented here as an invitation to a future visit.

Abstract: The recent use of streaming video on the World Wide Web for the distribution of live images has enabled an interface that supports a new phenomenon of virtual, defered, remote presence, extending perception and expanding the possibilities of remote interaction. The purpose of this essay is to provide a brief survey of the use of these live images in artistic spaces specifically conceived for this medium. These environments will be presented in three different categories, which propose transformations in possibilities of participation, interference, and the participants’ self-expression.